Chapter 2 #4
“Should I call the cops? What… I—how could he?” My mouth formed words, but they came out jumbled.
“I’m not sure if that’s the best idea,” Austin said. His eyes drifted toward Brandon, still bleeding on the floor. “Not with… that.”
“Is… he, you know?” I asked, not sure if I wanted to hear the answer.
“He’ll be fine,” Austin said. His tone made it clear he didn’t like that truth. “A few hits to the face. Nothing permanent.”
“I can’t take her home like this,” I murmured. It was like I was speaking to myself. “Her parents will freak. So will mine.”
“We can take her to my house,” Austin said. His voice stayed steady, oddly soothing. “My parents aren’t home. She can sleep it off there. You too, Yellow.”
I looked up at him. I was sure the confusion on my face was obvious. I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know his friend. I didn’t know anything about them, except that I’d met them outside a drug house.
He must have read my thoughts. “You can trust us, Yellow. I swear on my life. You can trust me.”
I thought back to the first night we met. The way he’d tried to stop me from going into that house. The way he’d looked at me like he was trying to protect me. He had protected Cherry. I didn’t know why, but I believed him.
“Okay,” I said. I nodded slowly. “Okay. Thank you.”
Austin nodded back. Then he turned to Levi, who had stayed quiet this whole time. He jerked his chin toward Cherry.
“Levi’s going to carry her. Is that okay?” he asked. “You won’t be able to lift her, Yellow.”
I exhaled. He was right. I could barely get her off the bed. “Okay.”
Levi moved toward us and gently scooped Cherry into his arms like she weighed nothing.
I watched his hands, the way he looked only at her face.
The way he made sure her legs stayed closed, her skirt smoothed down.
I felt Austin’s hands on my shoulders. He helped me stand, his touch light but steady.
I blinked a few times, trying to shake off the trance I’d fallen into. Then I followed them.
“She’s going to be okay,” Austin whispered as we stepped into the hallway.
I kept my eyes on Cherry, her head bobbing gently over Levi’s shoulder as we moved down the stairs.
We passed through the living room, through the party, and out the door.
People stared, but no one said anything.
“She’s going to sleep it off. She’ll be fine,” Austin said again.
I guessed he was repeating himself because I hadn’t responded.
No one spoke as we walked out the door. Austin didn’t say a word from where he walked beside me.
His hand stayed on my shoulder, guiding me where he wanted me to go.
I wasn’t sure if I needed the direction, my eyes were still fixed on Cherry, slumped over Levi’s shoulder.
Her face looked peaceful, as if she were asleep.
But that expression didn’t pacify me. It reminded me of the look Holden used to have when he was high out of his mind. Too still. Too far gone.
Levi didn’t even seem to feel her weight.
He walked with ease, like carrying her required no effort at all.
We had only made it a short way down the street, but I could still hear the low rumble of music from the party behind us.
I shook my head as I sighed, the reminder of why I never go to these things rising fresh in my chest. Nothing good comes with being under the influence. Of any kind.
Levi stopped at a sleek black car, one that looked brand new, like it had just been driven off a dealership lot.
He looked over his shoulder at Austin, who fumbled in his pocket for a second before pressing a button.
The car blinked its lights in greeting. Austin didn’t quicken his pace, even though Levi was standing in the cold waiting.
His steps remained even and deliberate, and it wasn’t until that moment I realized I’d been tracking the sound of his shoes on the pavement.
Rhythmic. Measured. Like the beat of my own breath.
When we reached the car, Austin opened the back door.
He looked at me first, offering a small smile that didn’t quite reach the rest of his face.
His eyes flicked toward Cherry, then back to me, like he was asking permission.
I nodded. Together, the three of us gently placed Cherry in the backseat.
Her body didn’t stir at all. Her face remained slack, her expression unchanged.
“Your turn, Yellow,” Austin said softly, standing beside the open door.
I didn’t answer. I just climbed in. I glanced around the car’s interior, sleek cream leather, a futuristic dash that looked like it belonged in a spaceship.
A far cry from my dated Honda. I lifted Cherry’s head and slid underneath her so she lay across my lap.
I moved gently, but I doubted it mattered.
She was so far gone that nothing I did could wake her.
Austin and Levi were speaking in low voices as they got into the front seats. I didn’t try to catch what they were saying. My focus stayed on Cherry. Her features blurred in my vision, the bright red anger flooding my brain slowly washing into something paler.
I was trying to breathe through it. The fury at Brandon.
The disgust. The helplessness. But emotions wouldn’t help me now.
I knew that. I’d learned it long ago. Rage didn’t bring clarity—it made everything bleed together, like colors on a canvas that were never meant to mix.
A mess of abstract emotion, smeared and unreadable. Forgotten in the attic.
I inhaled through my nose. One breath. Then another. With each one, my blood calmed a little more. There was only one thing that mattered. Cherry.
“Yellow?”
Austin’s voice snapped me back. I looked up.
Both he and Levi had turned in their seats to look at us, but their expressions couldn’t have been more different.
Austin was staring at me, brows pulled together, jaw clenched like I was a riddle he couldn’t solve.
Levi’s eyes were on Cherry. His expression was unmistakable, he was furious.
Like he’d just watched someone hurt a child.
“Let’s bring her in, okay?” Austin said when I didn’t respond. “She’ll be more comfortable in a bed.”
I nodded, pressing my lips together. These boys were still strangers, and yet I felt something close to gratitude.
If they hadn’t helped, I’d still be panicking.
Still stuck in that bedroom, trying to make Cherry wake up.
Levi opened Cherry’s door as Austin opened mine.
I didn’t look at Austin. I kept my eyes on Levi, watching as he lifted Cherry with care.
She draped over his shoulder like a doll, limp and fragile.
He didn’t look at me once, his eyes stayed on her.
“Come on,” Austin said, reaching for my hand. He pulled me gently from the car, like I was the one who had been drugged. Like I was the one who needed saving. And the way he looked at me, as if I was breakable, made me feel like maybe I was.
Once I was out of the car, I looked up at the house we had pulled into.
My jaw wanted to drop, but I didn’t let it.
Austin’s house was unlike any place I had ever been in before.
It was gigantic, not just big, but expensive.
Sleek and modern, painted in layered shades of black like a card sample of dark paint.
Every line was sharp. Every detail screamed curated wealth.
I tried to keep my eyes from widening as we walked toward the front door.
I wasn’t sure I’d ever met someone as rich as Austin.
Which made it even more confusing. My brows furrowed as I tried to piece it together.
He was rich, but I met him in front of a drug house.
He goes to West Bridge, but he was slumming it at a Hawking party. Why?
Austin unlocked the door and opened it, snapping me out of my thoughts.
The interior was just as lavish as the outside.
It looked like something out of a design magazine, clean and minimalistic.
I opened my mouth to say something, but Austin and Levi were already halfway up the stairs.
They didn’t seem interested in my reaction.
I followed, shaking the materialism out of my head.
“This one,” Austin muttered when we reached the next floor. He nudged a door open with his foot, revealing a large room with a bed in the center.
Levi stepped inside first, Cherry still draped over his shoulder. I trailed behind. He laid her down gently on the bed. Her red hair spilled across the white linens, brilliant and jarring—like blood against snow. I sat beside her, rearranging the pillows around her body.
“Should… does she want something to sleep in?” Levi asked. It was the first time I’d paid attention to him speaking.
His voice was deeper than I expected, smooth and grounded, and it suited him.
Levi had close-cropped dark hair and warm brown skin that caught the light easily, the kind that looked sun-touched even indoors.
He was solidly built, broad-shouldered, with strength that felt earned rather than styled.
He moved easily, like his body had always been something he trusted.
He was the opposite of Austin in most ways.
Where Austin burned, Levi steadied. But they shared the same quiet gravity.
“Yellow?” Austin said when I didn’t answer. My eyes drifted to him. He was looking at me like I was porcelain with a crack spidering down the center, like he was waiting for me to break. “Do you want to change her into something more comfortable?” he asked, his hand stroking his chin absently.
I hesitated. She probably would be more comfortable in something else, but I didn’t want to violate her privacy, especially when I couldn’t lift her on my own.
“She’ll be okay,” I said softly.
“Alright. Do you want something?” Austin asked. I gave him a puzzled look. “To sleep in,” he clarified.